Israel’s parliament has beefed up the security detail protecting Benny Gantz, the main electoral challenger to Benjamin Netanyahu, after deeming various death threats against Gantz to be credible.
The threats came after last week’s volatile and inconclusive election, in which Netanyahu, the prime minister, was unable to capture the parliamentary majority needed to form a government.
Gantz revealed that a man tried to assault him on Saturday evening as he arrived at a speaking engagement, and that Netanyahu supporters had been threatening him online. One post called for Gantz to be murdered just like former prime minister Yitzhak Rabin, who was assassinated by a Jewish ultra-nationalist in 1995. Another portrayed him and his fellow party leaders in Arab headdress, similar to images that circulated of Rabin before he was killed.
In his comments, Gantz vowed to unseat Netanyahu with a more worthy leadership and told the prime minister to tamp down his divisive rhetoric before it was too late. “Netanyahu: The public atmosphere and the threats worry every national leader,” he said. “The incitement is raging everywhere and you are silent.
“I won’t allow you to sow fear. I won’t allow you to turn man against his brother. I won’t allow you to bring about modern Israel’s first civil war in return for a ticket out of your trial. Your regime has trampled all norms.”
Netanyahu is scheduled to go on trial next week to face corruption charges of fraud, breach of trust and accepting bribes. Israel’s longest-serving leader is desperate to remain in office, because installing a new government would give him an important political boost and potentially allow him to legislate his way out of the legal quagmire.
On Monday, Amit Hadad, one of Netanyahu’s lawyers, said he would seek a delay to the start of the trial. He said the request was “technical” and meant to give the defence time to review investigative materials that it had not yet received.
Initial exit polls after Monday’s election had indicated Netanyahu’s Likud party and smaller religious and nationalist allies may be able to eke out a razor-thin edge in parliament. But when the last votes were counted on Thursday, final results showed Netanyahu’s right-wing bloc capturing just 58 seats, short of the 61-seat majority required to form a new government.
A defiant Netanyahu still insists he has emerged as the winner, and accused his opponents of trying to “steal the elections” by aligning with Arab-led parties he claimed were hostile to the state. “I promise you, I am not going anywhere,” Netanyahu told supporters on Saturday.
